A tape measure or measuring tape is a flexible form of ruler. It consists of a ribbon of cloth, plastic, fiber glass, or metal strip with linear-measurement markings. It is a common measuring tool. Its flexibility allows for a measure of great length to be easily carried in pocket or toolkit and permits one to measure around curves or corners. Today it is ubiquitous, even appearing in miniature form as a keychain fob, or novelty item. Surveyors use tape measures in lengths of over 100 m (300+ft).
Tape measures that were intended for use in tailoring or dressmaking were made from flexible cloth or plastic. Today, measuring tapes made for sewing are made of fiberglass, which does not tear or stretch as easily. Measuring tapes designed for carpentry or construction often use a stiff, curved metallic ribbon that can remain stiff and straight when extended, but retracts into a coil for convenient storage. A tape measure of 25 or even 100 feet can wind into a relatively small container.
The design on which most modern spring tape measures are built was patented by a New Haven, Conn. resident named Alvin J. Fellows on 14 Jul. 1868. According to the text of his patent, Fellows' tape measure was an improvement on other versions previously designed.
The spring tape measure has existed since Fellows' patent in 1868, but did not come into wide usage until the early 1900s, when it slowly began to supplant a common folding wooden design of carpenter's ruler.
On 3 Jan. 1922, Hiram Farrand received the patent he filed in 1919. Sometime between 1922 and December 1926 Farrand experimented with the help of The Brown Company in Berlin, N.H. It is there Hiram and W. W. Brown began mass producing the tape measure. Their product was later sold to Stanley Works.
Justus Roe, a surveyor and tape-maker by trade, made the longest tape measure in 1956, at 600 feet long. The Northern Virginia Surveyors Association presented the 600′ long, gold-plated surveyor's tape measure to Micky Mantle in 1956. It now resides with other such memorabilia, behind glass in the entry area of Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse located in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Some tapes sold in the United States have additional marks in the shape of small black diamonds, which appear every 19.2 inches (490 mm). These are known as ‘black truss’ markings, and are used to mark out equal truss lengths for roofing materials (five trusses per standard 8 feet (2.4 m) length of building material). Many tapes also have special markings every 16 inches, which is a standard interval for studs in housing.
Taking the above into account, there clearly remains a need for a measurement marking device/apparatus/appliance for setting measurement markings onto an object being measured by a measure tape.